


13: Not So Unlucky Anymore: Secrets Revealed

by EHC



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21609430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHC/pseuds/EHC
Summary: Just like I did with Worthy, here's a (much shorter) list of things that inspired me as I was writing 13: Not So Unlucky Anymore.
Relationships: None
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	13: Not So Unlucky Anymore: Secrets Revealed

Chapter 1: Missing the Mark(s)

  * though color would only appear once the mark was kissed by the joining soulmate - This idea came from a master list of soulmate AU ideas I created a while back. I had heard of color soulmate AUs and figured it'd be a great addition here.
  * Chloe ran her thumb over the black butterfly that adorned the inside of her left wrist and wondered what significance, if any, it held for her supposed other. - Obvious reference to the game itself. I had no other reason for making Chloe's mark a butterfly, which is partially why there was no actual discussion of her mark within the story.
  * A mark did, in fact, appear on Rachel's wrist, same place as hers, but it was a star and not a butterfly. - Obvious reference to the game, where Rachel has a star tattoo on her left wrist. In fact, her star tattoo is the main reason why everyone's soulmark is on their left wrist.
  * It was while Rachel was in the bathroom the next morning that life got... weird. - A running joke I have with myself, to never actually use the word "strange" in situations like this.
  * Juliet stared down at the black mark on the inside of her wrist that looked like a pocket-sized notepad and a short pencil. - I've always associated reporters with pocket-sized notepads and pencils. Just my thing that became Juliet's thing.
  * It was, appropriately enough, a pair of pom-poms - I went with this because I couldn't think of anything better. I had considered, perhaps, something more associated with water or swimming as I believe she's on the swim team, too, but I associate Dana closer with cheerleading rather than swimming.
  * "I'd say between 12 and 12:15?" she replied, looking towards Juliet for confirmation. - The significance of this time wound up getting edited out of the story, back when I was going to make things a bit more serious. Originally, the discovery of Max's marks was going to drag on longer. Everyone, not just Juliet, would be working to try and discover their other's identity through all sorts of means. While eating dinner at the Two Whales, Max was going to reveal that her 18th birthday was Saturday, the day everyone's marks showed up. She just didn't bother telling anyone it was her birthday for reasons that were also cut from the story. However, she also joked that her birthday should have been on the 20th instead of the 21st, and explained herself this way: "It was almost Friday, though. From what my parents told me, I was pretty stubborn and didn't want to come out into the big, scary world the day my mom went into labor. It took a few hours before she managed to push me out, so I was born just after midnight on the 21st." This was going to be Rachel and Chloe's big clue that Max was, in fact, part of this whole deal.
  * Courtney's looked like a dream catcher - Courtney's mark is based completely on the dream catcher necklace she wears in-game. There was an entire backstory that got cut from the final version, about her love of Native American myth, lore, and legends, fueled by her parents' previous job at the Smithsonian.
  * while Taylor's looked like stretched out diamond. - Taylor being Wiccan wasn't solidified at the time I wrote this but I knew hers was a crystal of some sort. I constructed a backstory for her later.
  * Kate, Stella, Alyssa, Brooke's soulmarks - Anytime I didn't describe exactly what a soulmark was in chapter 1 is because I hadn't figured it out yet. And while Kate's might seem obvious, I was toying around with it being a Christian cross rather than a bunny, but because I hadn't made up my mind, I left the description out.
  * "What can I say?" Stella said as she lowered her hand. "I like sleeping in, too." - Small reference to Stella in the game, banging on her shared wall with Dana, telling her to turn down her stereo.



Chapter 2: Ace Reporter Juliet Is On the Case

  * (No, wait. That's another version of this tale. We're keeping it silly here. So...) - Literally true. I may not ever write this more serious version of this story, despite having several completed scenes, but only time will tell.
  * "I'm fine with all the traditional creepy crawlers: spiders, bugs, snakes, mice, all that stuff." - During the planning stages, I had a few different ideas on how Juliet would try to scare Max, up to and including getting Dana to help her with a Halloween mask or something. Made me chuckle.
  * No offense to Max, I think she's fucking adorable, too, but she's way different from D and Vicky. - While Rachel doesn't know for certain that Juliet's slept with Victoria, she had noticed Juliet checking her out in the past. She asked Juliet, of course, but Juliet's never revealed the truth and is damn good about not dropping hints. That whole discreet angle I mention in later chapters.
  * though Principal Wells gladly mentioned Sean's name several times to anyone who would listen. - His lips are firmly attached to Prescott's ass even in this AU. In the original version of this story, this was going to be emphasized but as it wasn't needed here, it got cut.
  * She looked past Juliet towards the approaching reporter, picking up a dozen minute details from the man, all of which painted a rather shitty picture. - This is me showing that Max can be very observant, especially when it comes to protecting her friends. I did have more I was going to describe, such as "his slicked back hair, the way his eyes flickered with avarice," but it wound up sounding too B-movie villain, so I opted to cut it.
  * It also didn't occur to her to ask Steph and Chloe how they knew where to look to find herself and Max. - Both Chloe and Steph got a vague impression that Max went off-campus (it's something she's done before so it wasn't completely out of the ordinary) and picked a "random" direction that, thanks to their marks, really wasn't. No one is aware this happened, though, and no one ever had reason to sit down and think about it, either.
  * Juliet's nicknames for everyone:  
**D** \- Dana.  
**Queen Bee** \- Victoria, and stolen straight from Worthy.  
**Hot Stuff** \- Rachel, a play on her pyro antics from Before the Storm, the idea that she has fire powers in a lot of other fanfics, and the fact that Juliet finds her attractive.  
**Dungeon Mistress** \- Steph, a play on the title dungeon master, the person in charge of running tabletop D&D campaigns. Also, she may have dommed Juliet in the past.  
**Blue** \- Chloe. Reasons obvious. ;-)  
**Shower Singer** \- Courtney and a joke on her last name, Wagner, a German composer of operas. May also indicate that Courtney sings in the shower. May also indicate that Courtney sings in the shower (nudge nudge wink wink).  
**Bunny Cutie** \- Kate. Juliet finds her cute.  
**Fly Girl** \- Brooke, due to her drone.  
**Freak in the Sheets** \- Taylor, a reflection of her behavior when she and Juliet slept together.  
**Mountain Star** \- Stella and a simple reversal of her full name, Stella Hill.  
**Team Jacob** \- Alyssa. The idea that I have is she did read the Twilight books and hated the idea of sparkly vampires, so defaulted to the other side. And really liked Taylor Lautner's abs.



Chapter 3: Revelation 

  * It just felt like she was anticipating… something. - Max is feeling all 12 of her soulmates' anticipation about this afternoon but, as she has no idea what's happening, explains it away.
  * "Not changing shirts?" - Victoria was watching Max's back but was sadly denied.
  * "...Michael Kors? _That's_ what the MK stands for?" - Based on a real conversation I had with a friend a while back. Of course, I _knew_ it really didn't stand for Mortal Kombat but me suggesting that caused such a hysterical reaction that I just had to use it here.
  * 12 right, 13 left, 12 right - reference to the girls themselves: Max has 12 soulmates and all together, there are 13 at Blackwell.
  * "You don't have to thank her for each individual chip, you know." - According to the comments, this apparently is one of the funniest lines I've ever written!
  * "This one was more of a conference call deal with my father, who reiterated some of the things I stated about soulmates in a previous interview." - This is a reference to more cut content that was in the original version of this AU. In the planning stages, I had worked considerably on intergrating the concept of soulmates into a Christian ideology but, as you can imagine, it just bogged down everything.
  * "I..." Her voice cracked and she swallowed. "Sorry. I'm just nervous." - For the mood here, I was channeling [chapter 9 of Bookworms and Booya!](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3442114/9/Bookworms-and-Booya), a Final Fantasy VIII fanfic by mintbaby.



Chapter 4: Reciprocation, part 1 

  * Because she wanted this. Somehow, they also knew that Max wanted a soulmate. Badly. Someone to talk to, to confide in, to spend time with. Someone who could finally, _finally_ , understand her, tell her she deserved love, tell her she was loved. - Another reference to cut content. Unlike some of the other cut content, though, this might show back up should I write a sequel.
  * "Life just wouldn't be the same if I wasn't following you around like a lovesick puppy," Courtney stated with a sagely nod, "waiting for that one moment of validation that makes the day worth living." - A reference to both, her behavior in the games and how I've seen Courtney characterized in several other fics.
  * "Anime," Victoria corrected automatically. - The idea here is that, in the AU, Victoria's a bit more open about her hobbies to those closest to her and that Courtney and Taylor have watched anime with her in the past.
  * How fortunate that none of that mattered with soulmates, who transcended the societal constructs of gender roles and traditional relationship norms. Soulmates simply _were_. - Something that didn't get a lot of airtime in the fic but I mentioned in the comments at one point. Reciprocated soulmates are the equivalent of married in the eyes of the law and always have been. Period. Gender doesn't matter, sexual orientation doesn't matter. In this AU, most countries have laws that recognize the legitimacy of reciprocated soulmates, though there are some that don't. North Korea, for example, as Brooke discovered later in the chapter.
  * You, Maxine Caulfield, are mine, just as I, Kate Beverly Marsh, are yours. Forever more. - A reflection of the above, that reciprocated soulmates are the equivalent of being married. Kate is essentially exchanging vows with Max.
  * "Quite all right, dear." - This is a reference to Worthy, actually. In that story, starting with chapter 34, Kate starts calling Max "dear" periodically but doesn't realize she's doing it. Max doesn't register it as odd, either. That's because for both of them, it feels very natural. Just a hint of their growing affection for one another.
  * The following afternoon found Max at her desk, examining all the photos she had taken at the World Forestry Center. - Initially, I had a huge section dedicated to the girls' World Forestry Center but it wound up getting cut as it wasn't adding anything to the overall story and, honestly, felt like filler.
  * I'm actually intersex. - Making Stella intersex was inspired by two things: [Bloom, by Mogatrat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8539240/chapters/19577263), and the character of Aggie in the webcomic, [Go Get a Roomie](http://www.gogetaroomie.com/comic/chapter-24).
  * or what's in between your legs? - Believe it or not, this specific phrase was taken from a piece of Marvel's Avengers humor I found on Tumblr. The idea is that Thor, being fairly long-lived, has likely enjoyed sex with every gender imaginable and even those who fall in between, and when asked by a particularly insistent and rude reporter, "But what's between her legs?", his answer is "With a little bit of luck, me!"
  * based of what you've told me, I don't think your family was accepting of you. - More cut content. I had an entire backstory about Stella and the hardships she encountered growing up that, ultimately, didn't make it into the final product.
  * I know you said Sera typically works on the weekends and can't make the drive up. - Even more cut content. As the exact events from Before the Storm didn't happen in this AU, I envision that when Sera cleaned up her act and wanted to be part of Rachel's life in some way, Rose and James accepted. She now works a good job in northern California and visits when she can.
  * Princess Bride - I had the idea to work in "As you wish" into this reciprocation scene but it just didn't work out that way.
  * "It's a constant reminder that I'll never be lonely again." - Another hint that Max's life before Blackwell wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
  * A carryover from Worthy, I've made Brooke half-Korean again.
  * "Not your fault, though I was really happy to hear you shot him down Monday." - There was an entire scene I wrote of Max shooting down Warren that, I think, came across rather well. I might have to post it to my Tumblr page at some point.
  * I just got back from Seattle. Amongst other things, I visited my parents. - Victoria invited Taylor and Courtney along for her mini-roadtrip so they could talk in length about Max, soulmates, and reciprocating.
  * I certainly didn't have to reciprocate for their sake or any notions of prestige. - This is quite different from my original version, where Victoria's parents would pressure her into reciprocating precisely because of prestige.
  * soylent green patties - back in high school, we'd call the cafeteria burgers this, as a reference to the book/movie, _Soylent Green_.
  * Found the magazines I needed. - I stole this from chapter 36 in Worthy, where Chloe, Rachel, and Steph made a trip to Portland to hit up Barnes & Noble to get magazine for some homework assignment or another.
  * D&D - borrowed from Before the Storm and numerous fanfics where Steph runs pencil and paper RPGs for her friends.
  * In fact, I tend to wing a lot of things in my games. - Taken from me, as I do the same thing when I ran games for my friends.



Chapter 5: Reciprocation, part 2, the beginning 

  * evocation of the spirit - The name of this Photography assignment is taken straight from an album of the same name, a collection of classical choral pieces, performed by the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.
  * Shut your whore mouth - I wrote this, laughed, then removed it from the scene. I only put it back in when I told my friend about the line and she insisted I keep it.
  * It was around 7:15 that things got... interesting - Same running joke as chapter 1.
  * "Like you wouldn't do anything Max asked if she dressed in a cheerleader outfit, straddled your lap, and batted her baby blues at you." - For a good idea of what Max would look like as a cheerleader, take a gander at [Max as a cheerleader, by simpletextadventure](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17684948). 
  * I've always been discreet about it, though, and have always asked my partners to be discreet, too. - This harkens back to a conversation I had with Krash in the comments of chapter 2, where I revealed that Juliet has slept with more than a few girls in the dorms. Krash found the idea of everyone slowly realizing Juliet's slept with half of them hilarious, which helped fuel a scene in the next chapter.



Chapter 6: Reciprocation, part 2, the middle 

  * Prior experience told her when to pick and choose her battles - This I borrowed from the fic [Dream Blue Haze, by explosionshark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4176228).
  * A couple of reasons, though the most important one is, I wanted her to capture the exact moment of my reciprocation on film. - The other reason is Victoria's going to use it for the Photography assignment, though this never made it into the fic.
  * it wasn't everyday that the three were treated to the sight of Juliet bent over Max's bed, facedown, wrists bound behind her back - I know this isn't Worthy and also not a D/S AU but one thing I wanted to show here was how every day bondage is to some, such as Juliet and Steph.
  * and managed to communicate wordlessly that Steph wasn't the only one to have been with Juliet in the past. - This is the scene I mentioned earlier. When Juliet stated she had been discreet before, she meant it. No one knew anything about each other. Of course, now that they know, there'll likely be a conversation between them and Juliet, though because all of them are in the same nexus of soulmates, the conversation will likely be way more civilized and understanding than it might have otherwise.
  * She was immediately greeted with the subtle scent of berries and vanilla - Courtney using scented candles is also borrowed from Worthy, though she's not synesthetic here.
  * She said that if I walked around campus dressed like this tomorrow, I'd leave a trail of soaked panties in my wake. - Partially inspired by something Alyssa said in [chapter 42 of Escaping The Light, by Omnicyde](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970268/chapters/34005077).
  * "If I begged for forgiveness, for how I treated you before, would you forgive me?" - The sentiment here is borrowed from a scene in the movie, _V For Vendetta_ , when Dr. Delia Surridge asks V, "Is it meaningless to apologize?" to which he replies, "Never."



Chapter 7: Reciprocation, part 2, the end 

  * "Fuck your whole couch" - This phrase is one my friend uses with me all the time. It's equivalent to the phrase, "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."
  * A lot of people in the comments pointed out that Dana talking to Max here about intimacy here mirrors what she told Max in Worthy, and that's absolutely correct. It wasn't completely intentional, though. It's just that, of the girls left to reciprocate with Max, Dana was the most likely person to talk about casual intimacy, as I already had plans for the other girls. Unlike Worthy, though, Max is a lot more comfortable with showing her affection right away, fueled in large part by her soulbond with Dana. The other part is she's nowhere near as shy as she is in Worthy.
  * "I was. But it's not a bad thing, not this time. I was praying." - I took this from my mother, who sometimes gets pretty emotional when she prays.
  * trying not to do a happy dance - I was thinking of [Max's Happy Dance™, by simpletextadventure](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21521818) when I wrote this.
  * "I swear I will burn those the first chance I get," Rachel grumbled. - Something else I borrowed from Escaping the Light, this time from chapter 28.
  * wolf conservatory - My aforementioned friend went to a wolf conservatory, which fueled this specific part of Max and Alyssa's conversation.
  * Their maturing soulbonds had led to some interesting scenarios the past couple of months, and there were more than a few painful conversations that took place, as each of them slowly discovered that there was simply no lying to one another (it was stupidly obvious) and long-buried secrets would inevitably find their way to the surface. - All of this hints towards ideas I have for possible future scenes in this AU. We'll see if it ever gets done.



**Author's Note:**

> As before, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!


End file.
